November 08, 2009

Durbin says health-care bill faces challenge in Senate

Sen. Dick Durbin said today Senate Democrats have significant concerns about the health care plan passed by the Democratic-led House and while they have the votes to get the issue to the floor there isn't yet enough support to pass it.

Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat, said getting a 60-vote majority to prevent a Republican filibuster remains a goal. While Democrats also could circumvent a filibuster through the process of reconciliation, which needs only a simple majority, it would prevent enacting some major changes such as requiring private insurers to cover pre-existing conditions.

Speaking at a downtown news conference in conjunction with the upcoming Veterans Day holiday, Durbin said sticking points remain on funding health care coverage, a public option aimed at making private insurance costs competitive and restrictions on abortion coverage that were inserted into the House-passed bill.

“There are so many issues. I think we have the 60 votes we need today to bring the vote to the floor. I don’t believe we have the 60 votes to pass it,” Durbin said. He expects the Senate to begin debating in earnest after the Thanksgiving holiday recess in hopes of a final vote before the end of the year.

The abortion amendment to the House-passed plan would basically expand the longtime Hyde Amendment, named after late west suburban Republican Congressman Henry Hyde, which bans the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. The provision in the House measure would essentially prevent abortion coverage from being part of any insurance plan offered through a public option or by specially formed health exchanges.

“With that amendment passing, some were able to vote for it who wouldn’t before and we were able to put together a majority to pass this bill,” Durbin said.

Durbin has been a major supporter of President Barack Obama’s health care reform initiative and of a public option, but the state’s senior senator said he wanted to review the final product of the Senate and not focus on single issues in the House version -- including the abortion provision. Durbin said, however, that allowing states to opt out of the public option -- a Senate proposal -- may be “one of the ways that may resolve” the public-option debate.

The 220-215 House vote Saturday night quickly became fodder for the debate over Illinois’ other Senate seat, which is being vacated by embattled Rod Blagojevich appointee Sen. Roland Burris following next year’s elections.

Five-term North Shore Republican Rep. Mark Kirk, one of several candidates for the Feb. 2 GOP Senate nomination, voted against the measure in the House and said Republicans showed “that we are not the party of no -- we are the party of better.” Only one Republican, from Louisiana, voted for the measure.

Kirk contended the measure would cut Medicare funding for seniors while raising taxes by more than $700 billion. He is the author of a Republican-backed alternative that was not considered. He contended the House measure would compromise the doctor-patient relationship.

The House-passed bill would reduce payments to doctors who treat Medicare Advantage patients —- those covered by private insurers —- whom Democrats estimate receive 14 percent more in payments than physicians who treat Medicare patients. It also would impose a tax on individuals making more than $500,000 and $1 million for couples, while also requiring businesses with a payroll of a half-million dollars or more to offer health insurance or pay a penalty.

But the campaign of Democratic Senate contender Alexi Giannoulias, the state’s first-term treasurer, criticized Kirk for backing the abortion-restriction amendment to the final House measure. Kirk “has abandoned his once pro-choice voting record to take private insurance coverage away from women,” Giannoulias’ campaign spokeswoman Kati Phillips said in a statement.

Giannoulias, meanwhile, touted a campaign endorsement from West Side Congressman Luis Gutierrez. The move could assist Giannoulias in gaining support from a growing Latino community in his multi-candidate match-up for the Democratic nomination.

Another Democratic contender, Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson, criticized the abortion restriction provision in the House-passed measure. She said in a statement that health-care reform “must provide access to reproductive health services for all women and girls, whether or not they are poor and receive government subsidized care.”

Incidentally, Jackson, a first-term spokeswoman for Blagojevich, is apparently no longer referring to herself as Cheryle Robinson Jackson, based on the statement issued by the campaign. But her campaign Web site is keeping her middle name.

Comments

Harry Reid here in Nevada is GONE in 12 months. These other slimey politicians better get a clue. Corzine spent 130 million dollars and still lost.We don't want the stinkin obama ,reid,pelosi stand in line for your healthcare bill. Goodbye Harry....

According to a Thomson Reuters report released on 10/26/09, waste in the U.S. healthcare system could total up to $850 billion a year. Census data also show that recent immigrants and their U.S.-born children under 18 account for over 70 percent of the growth of the uninsured population in the U.S.

President Obama and Congress should first work on trimming waste and enacting some sort of immigration moratorium as first steps to achieve sensible healthcare reform. They should not count on borrowing more from other countries to finance our needs. The high costs of teen pregnancies, totaling 750,000 a year nationwide, have also been ignored.

I am an immigrant who used to prepare amnesty and other immigration applications. It is high time that American leaders used common sense to address our policies.

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